Recently I posted about the Bachelor of Arts Career Information Session. The title of the post, and the title of the info session, was “I’m Not Flipping Burgers: The Bachelor of Arts Career Info Session.”

Well, what I meant by that was that when I was going to school to get my B.A., and nowadays when some people find out I have a B.A., they make a little joke. “Oh, so you plan to flip burgers for the rest of your life, huh?” The implication is that with a B.A. degree, you can’t get a high-paying job and that you’re wasting your time pursuing the degree.

I thought that entitling the career session “I’m Not Flipping Burgers” would show that there are many job opportunities related to a Bachelor of Arts degree that are available to grads. I made posters and had them printed up, sent submissions to the Bricklayer at R.D.C., and the Humanities and Social Sciences and U of C Collaborative Degree websites, and was about to embark on my campaign to promote the event all over the college.

Well, I was about to hang the posters up when I ran into a sociology instructor here. I don’t know if looking at her made me think this way, but I suddenly felt like the title was a bit offensive.

What if somebody IS flipping burgers, and takes offense at the implication that it’s a no-good job and B.A. graduates are too good for it? What if somebody has to flip burgers out of economic necessity? What if somebody enjoys flipping burgers, which is entirely acceptable?

Wow. Insensitivity. I asked the soci instructor, who volunteered to take the posters to her Sociology of Work class at the college for student feedback. Sure enough, the students fed-back. (Thank you!) They felt it was eye-catching but that it could very well be construed as insensitive and offensive. For example, Kevin Federline’s French-fry commerical was seen to be offensive by many in the food services industry.

Well, I don’t want to pull a “K-Fed”, so I’ve retitled to reflect that – “I Got My B.A. . . . Now What?”: The Bachelor of Arts Career Info Session.

It’s still on January 29 from 4:30-5:30 in room 2501. It’ll still feature guest speakers with the degree, employment tips, and a question/answer session. It’ll still be great.

But it’ll also be politically correct, because career or no career, the one thing we all should get from a Bachelor of Arts education is the ability to be open-minded.